Posts Tagged ‘batman’

Lincoln turned 4 on July 23rd and Finnegan is turning 2 on August 30th. Since they’re only 5 weeks apart, they get joint birthday parties. I asked Lincoln what kind of party he wanted, and since he’s totally Batman-obsessed, his answer was A SUPERHERO BIRTHDAY PARTY! Finnegan has no objections because a) he’s still 1 and b) he also loves superheroes. I had a hard time narrowing it down to which superheroes – generic Super Hero stuff? The DC Universe? Just Marvel Comics? Am I a monster for mixing it all together? I decided I didn’t actually care and we went with every kind of Superhero from all the worlds. Fight me if you think that’s a crime.

After years of throwing Evan cold spring parties and Caroline cold winter parties, it is SO FUN to throw a party where 90% of the activities are outside. This was also the first party where I planned actual activities for almost the entire time – we had 2 straight hours of games before we did cake, then the grown-ups all got to sit down while the kids burned off some of their energy. It was the most fun I’ve had at one of my own parties ever, even though the noise level was insane.

There is a ton of superhero stuff available everywhere from party stores to Target, so I grabbed stuff whenever I saw it. The pinata was from Walmart, the napkins are Party City, the backdrop and banner are from Amazon. All the crepe paper and regular balloons and silly string came from the dollar store and the quick-fill water balloons have been purchased for the last year every time I saw a pack on clearance (although they are available online as well). Let me know if you’re looking for anything and I can be more specific.

The party wasn’t just a party – it was Superhero Training School. The kids had to complete their superhero tasks in order to get a certificate (my husband had all the parents fill in the name once the kids were here).

Almost all the kids at the party fell between age 12 and age 2, and they all loved all the activities. Once they picked out their mask they were ready for training.

These masks I got from Amazon were GREAT – 2 of each hero so there wasn’t any fighting over who got to be the only Superman or whatever, plenty of “girl” heroes, and they held up through a lot of wear without falling apart.

After we finished the training, we celebrated with the pinata. I hate the pull-strings, so we did it the old-fashioned way. We lined the kids up by size and they each got two hits. It survived all the way to the last kid!

Of course, all these superheroes needed plenty of energy to save the day. I’ve always loved doing themed food at parties, but I’ve learned over the years what is popular and what just ends up as leftovers. I definitely over-estimated on the cake, but I’m not even that sad because I love leftover cake.

You can buy a 40-count box of individual Fritos from Amazon for around $15, which works out perfectly for portable, fun taco salad. At the camping party we called them walking tacos, today they were “ready for action” tacos, since you can eat them while running to stop bad guys.

Two bottles of red wine, a bottle of lime selzer, some fresh fruit. It was DELICIOUS.

We also had favors (bubbles, tattoos and a toy) as well as a tattoo station.

Finnegan did not understand how to blow out his candle, but he definitely liked the cake and the part where everyone sang. Linc just loves everything about birthdays.

At the end of the day, we even managed to get some family photos of us all in our on-theme outfits. It was just a perfect day with amazing weather and SO many great friends. A huge thanks to my parents who did an enormous amount of work for party prep and clean-up and all our Ohio relatives who made the super long drive to help celebrate the babies! Having cousins here for their birthday was such a treat.

I don’t usually dress up for Halloween. Grown-up costumes are either too cheap or too expensive and never fit right, if they fit at all. I don’t want to be a Sexy Crayon or a Sexy Elmo or a Sexy Fire Hydrant. I just want to be a regular mom in yoga pants who steals all the peanut butter candy after the kids go to bed.

But this year, we needed some extra Halloween magic, so we did a family Halloween costume.

Putting on a Supergirl costume – and wearing it in public – is terrifying. I am not Supergirl. I am a 35-year-old mother of 4. But during this deployment, I don’t get a choice. I HAVE to be super, all the time. With the kids, the house, the dog, the finances, my work, the holidays, all of it. It feels like I am lifting heavy objects, dodging bullets and leaping over obstacles on a daily basis. So if the cape fits, I’m going to wear it. And the boots. And some bright red lipstick.

And if I’m going to put that much effort into our family of superheroes Halloween costumes, you can bet I’m going to turn it into a photo shoot. We headed down the street and borrowed an abandoned mill (possibly the old Hopkins & Allen firearms factory? I’m not good at telling the many abandoned brick buildings downtown apart) for a cityscape. The kids had a GREAT time playing superhero and even if I still don’t love looking at myself in photos, I know I won’t be sorry to have these. I can’t wait for E to get a chance to see that I’m using my super strength to hold everything together well enough to still have fun.

Any of these that I am in were taken by Evan and/or Caroline. I taught them how back button focus, framing, and shooting works (with the camera safely on a tripod) and they did an awesome job.

In case you were wondering, Evan and Caroline’s costumes came from Chasing Fireflies (Caroline this year, Evan last year), Finnegan’s Robin and Supergirl are from Zulily, and Linc’s was bought on a local resale page. I’m pretty sure it’s pajamas, but it’s comfortable and he loves it.

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Bonjour! No I'm not French, it just sounded fancy. Sorry for the confusion. I'm Suzanne, a 36-year-old mom, photographer, Navy wife, blogger, baker, and amateur at pretty much everything else. The stars of the show are Evan, born 4/5/09, Caroline, born 12/19/2010 and Lincoln, born 7/23/2014. The last bebeh is Finnegan, born 8/30/2016 so he's a toddler now but don't talk to me about that. We live in Connecticut and enjoy it very much except for most of February and March. You can find more of my photos (or even hire me!) over on my photography site, Ginger Snaps Pictures. I love hearing from you so if you have questions, stories or ideas to share, email me at bebehblog@gmail.com .

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